Earlier today (6 April), the first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from a series of El Al flights from China landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel transporting 20 tons of essential protective equipment for medical professionals in the country. The same day, second aircraft took off from China and landed in Israel at noon. Meanwhile, the third aircraft took off from Israel to China.
The special operation of flights led by the Purchasing Director and the International Transportation Unit of the Ministry of Defense consists of 11 flights, which will bring to Israel millions of essential medical equipment and items – masks, protective suits, ventilators and more in the coming days.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Embassy in Beijing, Israel Chemicals Ltd (ICL) and its representatives in China, EL AL Israel Airlines, Mentfield Logistics Group, an international logistics and shipping company, and other entities also joined the operation.
Avi Dadon, Deputy Director General and Head of Procurement at the Ministry of Defense: “This morning culminates an operation that brings together unique planning and thinking for finding unconventional solutions during a global crisis to source and acquire equipment for the medical teams. The solution we developed was to establish a bridgehead in China, accumulate the equipment there and start sending it to Israel. I am happy to do this with EL AL using the symbolic aircraft, Jerusalem of Gold. I would like to thank all the partners from the offices of the Foreign Ministry, Health, the Prime Minister, ICL and Mentfield who worked hard to succeed in this operation. We expect another 10 such aircraft to complete the procurement we made, to enable the medical teams in Israel to do their job properly. ”
EL AL’s Director of Cargo, Ronen Shapira: “This is the first aircraft in a series of 11 flights, operated by EL AL with the Ministry of Defense and Mentfield, to bring equipment to the Corona efforts. EL AL and the Ministry of Defense are working together to help the people of Israel flight the Coronavirus”.
